Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. The program that has been offered by Aurora College is recognized, probably not all courses, but most of the courses are recognized by southern institutions so they can continue on to take advanced education, whether it be a diploma or a degree program. So we’re always pushing our northern college and other institutions to have an accreditation program here in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, our contribution is towards the organization and they hire their staff and they pay their staff the wages and also benefits, similar to what we do with the school funding formula. We give a lump sum funding to the schools based on enrolment and then they hire their professional staff. So it’s a similar arrangement that we have with them.

We’re happy to announce that as of this year there have been 55 successful early childhood education candidates surrounding 14 communities. So that’s one of the successes that we like to show the Northwest Territories. So we continue to improve our...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member is there for me as well to assist me. I think we need to collaborate on this, because I don’t have all the answers. I certainly don’t know exactly what is happening on a day-to-day basis in the Member’s riding. Certainly that information will be available for our department. Certainly I will look forward to working with that. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we are always re-evaluating our program to make it successful into the communities, especially the most isolated communities. Certainly we can take on the task. We need to find out what is truly happening in the communities. Like I said, we have our client service officers or on-duty client service officers that do their work. At the same time, sometimes it is out of our hands where not enough or a lack of information has been provided, so that creates more frustration for clientele. At the same time, they have to come with the full information. So certainly we can do our part and...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today is Take a Kid to Work Day. I’d like to recognize my daughter Cheyenne Lafferty who is here with us, my shadow, and her friend Alex McLean here with us as well. I’d also like to recognize, of course, Eddie Erasmus and Joline Huskey. They’re part of the Water Strategy team. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act, be read for the first time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document titled Annual Report on Official Languages 2008-2009.

Mr. Speaker, our department is open to any discussion that will certainly benefit all the communities of the Northwest Territories. This particular area, we have to involve the RCMP “G” Division in any discussion that is focused on enforcement or foot patrol, because they’re the ones who have the liability in that area, and also the agreements that we have in place with them through the federal contribution. So any meeting that needs to take place is not only the municipalities but also the RCMP “G” Division needs to be involved in those areas. So we’ll continue to work in that dialogue. Mahsi...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is one area that certainly was addressed at last week’s FPT meeting that I attended in Fredericton. Out of that meeting, the three territorial Ministers did discuss a strategy with the federal government to increase policing in the remote communities such as the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and also Nunavut. Out of that there is a plan in place which I’ll be sharing with the Members.

There is also a plan in place by the federal government, Mr. Speaker, a community officer program. There’s a pilot project for our jurisdiction and we are certainly looking forward to...

Mr. Speaker, the on-call duty officer can certainly assist those clientele whenever a client service officer is not available due to whether it be vacation or on sick leave. So those areas and the filing system is also taken care of. There is strictly a confidentiality that every client service officer respects and takes into consideration. So whenever there’s a client that’s calling into the receptionist, the receptionist should provide assistance, support, and also the phone numbers of certain individuals that they can contact. I do believe that they should provide those services. If not...